Football Outsiders Player Pages FAQ

WHAT DO THESE STATISTICS MEAN?

Pct Tm: The percentage of the defense's plays against the run or pass where this player was involved in making the play.

Adj Pct Tm Total: The percentage of the defense's total plays where this player was involved in making the play, adjusted for the number of games he played during the season.

WHO GETS A PLAYER PAGE?

We've created a player page for virtually every player who played at least several games during the DVOA Era (1989 and onwards), including all offensive players with at least one carry or pass. We also have pages for all players drafted in the most recent draft. Some players from 1989-1990 are not yet added to the database. For older players, we recommend you check out pro-football-reference.com.

HOW MANY YEARS OF STATS ARE AVAILABLE?

All readers can see Advanced Stats for the past three years as well as Game Charting Stats from the previous seasons. Football Outsiders Premium subscribers can see Advanced Stats going back to 1989 (for defense, 1998) and Game Charting Stats going back to the start of the Game Charting Project in 2005.

HOW MANY PLAYERS ARE RANKED AT EACH POSITION?

QB: Quarterbacks are ranked if they have a minimum of 100 pass plays that year (passing) or eight running attempts, not counting kneeldowns (rushing).

RB: Running backs are ranked if they have a minimum of 100 runs (rushing) or 25 passes (receiving).

WR: Wide receivers are ranked if they have a minimum of 50 passes (receiving) or 5 runs (rushing).

TE: Tight ends are ranked if they have a minimum of 25 passes.

DT: Defensive tackles are ranked if they have a minimum of 20 plays.

DE: Defensive ends are ranked if they have a minimum of 24 plays.

LB: All linebackers are ranked together. Linebackers are ranked in Advanced Stats if they have a minimum of 48 plays. Linebackers are ranked in Game Charting Stats if they have a minimum of 16 charted passes.

CB: Cornerbacks are ranked in Advanced Stats if they have a minimum of 30 plays. They are ranked in Game Charting Stats if they have at least 40 charted passes or eight games started (2008-current); 45 charted passes or eight games started (2007); 45 charted passes (2006); or 40 charted passes (2005).

SAF: Strong safeties and free safeties are ranked together. Safeties are ranked in Advanced Stats if they have a minimum of 30 plays. They are ranked in Game Charting Stats if they have at least 16 charted passes (2006-current) or 14 charted passes (2005).

At some point in the near future, we'll be standardizing the minimum baseline for defensive backs to be ranked in game charting stats; right now, we're just going by whatever we used in each year's Football Outsiders Almanac.

WHY ARE SOME STATS MISSING?

There are no hits and hurries numbers prior to 2006.

Offense-adjusted numbers for Success Rate and Yards per Pass Allowed have not yet been produced for 2005-2006. We hope to fix that soon.

Advanced defensive stats and penalty numbers are currently not tabulated prior to 1998. More years will be available in our database soon.

Individual special teams numbers (returns, kickoffs, punts, field goals) will be added to player pages at some point in the future.

Stay tuned for a major overhaul of the FO player pages, planned for the 2017 offseason!